Escapism
by Audacia's Quill
Summary: The pleas of a desperate boy are heard and the dream of what must be every child's comes true for this teen. The logistics living in a fictional world which is now reality are brought up as Harry Potter searches for the happiness he strives for. Slash AU
1. The Boy Who Wished

_Escapism_

_Abused!Harry _

_A crossover different from the others, an A. U. in this scenario:_

_What if the Dursley's where successful in running away from the Hogwart's letters? What if the Dursley's had also successfully "Beaten the nonsense out" of him? _

_This._

_Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter [Yaoi! etc.]_

* * *

There have been days when The Boy was so weak he could not muster the energy to move those knobbly knees and start walking to do his chores. One day the lucky streak of the Dursley's began to slowly dwindle when questions started to puncture their lives the more they dared let Harry Potter out. They asked why he was so pale. Why so frail? Why so bony? Why so quiet?

So they stopped letting him out and saying they would send him to St Brutus's School for Incurably Criminal Boys because he was not a good boy. He was a bad boy who rejected his food out of rebellion, a bad boy who took his mother's pale complexion and a bad boy who didn't like other people so he never spoke. That's what the Dursleys told the world so that is what the world believed and the outside probes which represented a possible saviour were torn out of Harry's life.

But like every child, but none more-so then a desperate one, he dreamed. He dreamed of what his dad looked like and that the Dursleys lied about his drunkeness and that he'd burst in and save him, and then tear of his shirt to reveal he's Superman. It never happened, sometimes he dreamed of his mother tip-toeing in while the Dursleys slept and stealing him away into the night and telling him it'd be over. His days of chores and backbreaking labor would end, he wouldn't sleep in the cupboard, he wouldn't be starved within an inch of his life or beaten anymore and he would never have to lie again. He hated lying, he had to do it daily to his teachers at Rossinger's school. They told all the neighbors that Harry no longer lived with them and attended St. Brutus's at age fifteen because Ms Figg was asking questions. They didn't let him even attend Stonewall since it was too close and people who knew them could spot him, so they sent him to Rossingers and made him walk in the shadows, out of sight, early morning without food, miles and miles to another school.

The kids there were all into some latest trend and whilst Harry was narrowly aware of them he never had the money or popularity clout to take part, the current popular game was something to do with trading cards and his heart soared when he saw other kids play it. They knew he was fairly smart too even if for some reason he insisted on hiding it and they knew he was poor, so whilst ripping on him for such was the norm it bordered friendly as they let him be the "Mathman" in their trading card duels, and keep track of their lifepoints.

It was from then on when kids were playing with their booster-packs that Harry became absorbed in something absolutely forbidden -magic.

Unicorns, mermaids, dragons, magicians and sorcerers were all included in the game and for once in his short life Harry Potter felt connected to some part of being a child.

He could never let the Dursleys know he knew of the game or that he liked it, but he loved Duel Monsters, he wished so hard he had a deck to play with the other boys but was reduced to being the "Mathman," and put his brains to some use. In between chores that made his beaten bones ache, Harry would pray for a window of opportunity to arrive, and it did too.

Petunia would leave for a gossip three doors down with a neighbour and instruct Harry to do the dishes but keep his head so low nobody would see him in the window, Dudley was almost always out vandalizing at around this time and Vernon wouldn't be back for an hour. So Harry would discreetly change the channel on television to one the kids all watched and finally got to indulge in the TV show that birthed the card-game he adored.

He began to gain a childish glee from watching characters duel each other and the subplots of mighty Pharaohs, Egypt and mysterious "magic" the forbidden M.

It was like, for all his beatings, starvation and labour, this was one small victory so long as he changed the channel just as the credits rolled because Vernon would burst in and he'd have to pretend to go back to doing the dishes which he would finish early on occasion to watch the show.

There are moments where we all wish ourselves to a fantasy world in our minds, but it's ever so different for a special boy like Harry James Potter who possessed "The Forbidden M" without ever knowing it, the magic which was so powerful, it could form a fantasy he could one day touch within his fingers.

One day a kid at Rossinger's handed him a powerful card, The Magician of Black Chaos, saying he had three and liked Harry more then "that arsehole Ricky," who also occasionally did the lifepoint counting. The day Dudley discovered it he was beaten within an inch of his life, and never had the desperate boy wished so hard to be in another world as drops of blood spilled onto the only duelling card he owned.

That day, he woke up in a place which was most definitely not the cupboard under the stairs, and saw a face that he recognized. A turbaned man which was so frighteningly real that he almost passed out again, pinched himself several times and promptly fell unconscious. This world he had wanted to become real was being dangled in his face in what had to have been a dream, one that he would wake up from in the spider-ridden cupboard.

Surely enough, he was awoken, but by the smooth baritone of a voice that did not belong to Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia.

"What are you doing here, child?"

The boy almost cried with joy, this was no dream, the world was his oyster, for every plea he had ever done in desperation to escape and restore his faith in God, God finally answered back.


	2. Little Steps Into The Big World

_Escapism_

_Abused!Harry _

_A crossover different from the others, an A. U. in this scenario:_

_What if the Dursley's where successful in running away from the Hogwart's letters? What if the Dursley's had also successfully "Beaten the nonsense out" of him? _

_This._

_Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh or Harry Potter [Yaoi! etc.]_

* * *

Shadi looked at the mortal who for all intents and purposes, had simply appeared at his feet. A boy who looked like an absolute unavoidable train-wreck, and coming from an ancient spirit who had resided in Egypt both as an ancient and in the place's modern era, he was no stranger to the beggars, poor and less fortunate but this boy just looked shattered in every sense of the word. The boy had been lucky, Shadi was about to disappear on his way to the Millennium Crypt in Egypt had the boy not appeared at his feet after his update on the wayward Ishtar from Isis at Domino Museum.

"I'm –I'm lost," the boy said finally.

Shadi could see there were many levels to that statement and he was half-wondering whether to take the Millennium Ankh to his head and assess the situation. But first Shadi moved them both to a more secluded part of Domino where less people would stop and stare at the shattered teen.

He was so thin it made Shadi frown, there were little burn marks around his wrists but the look in his almost hollowed face was enough to cripple the heart. The boy was not from a good place though judging from his clothes –ill fitting as they were, he had not been on the street long.

"Do you know how to get home?" asked Shadi, guessing the boy to be about fifteen and didn't want to patronize him.

"I don't have a home," said the boy, looking at the floor "-I was hoping you could give me an idea where I should go sir? I haven't been on the streets long and I don't think I'm going to last," the teen then put his hand to his stomach and Shadi realized that he was probably starving to the point it was a wonder how the boy stood on two grounded feet.

"There are places for young people like you," said the aged spirit softly.

Shadi was at a loss on what to really do, he wanted to do something for the teen but he was a dead man, a spirit with a royal duty to the Pharaoh. The boy cringed at 'people like you' and from the look on his face was used to being disparaged. Shadi almost instantly regretted his phrasing.

The boy had long grown out and unkempt black hair (hiding a lightning bolt scar) that had the potential to be beautiful that reached to his shoulders and was tied back with a small elastic band that had been through thick and thin, the teen on top of his skinny-ness resembled very much the pale withered flower with only bright protruding green eyes to still retain any beauty along with dying pink lips.

Shadi felt something of an emotion block; he was a fairly one-track spirit with an unknown obstacle cluttering his path that he had no idea how to handle. The next thought was pass the boy onto someone who could handle it, as soon as he mentioned there being places for teens like him, he pictured the boy withering even worse in the harsh youth hostels or orphanages that were notorious for being awful. Something magical almost completely wired into him when Shadi's ghostly fingers had brushed Harry, he was someone who needed to be safely sent on his way because he had a power that made the Millennium Items that Shadi possessed on his person almost burn.

His first thought was the woman he finished talking to – Isis Ishtar, she was compassionate and kind and loved her family even if they caused her unbearable pain. But then reminded himself just because they took in Odion Ishtar from the desert does not mean they took in all strays, especially at a time in their life when one of their own was falling into darkness. He couldn't lump the boy into a family with it's own spiralling issues.

"Come with me, I know where you can go," said Shadi softly.

With heavy regret, Shadi led the boy on the doorstep of the first hostel he saw and turned away.

Harry never forgot the seemingly emotionless spirit that had led him from the street that night.

* * *

Domino's youth hostel wasn't great, the kids were harsh and uncouth and others were cold and didn't pay mind to anyone else, but for Harry Potter it was a huge step up. They fed him until he was a healthy weight, they made his bones stop aching and allowed him to become stronger so that he was no longer frail enough for the wind to defeat. Pinkness occasionally rushed to his face as he had the energy to run and the health of youth seemed to return to him. Harry didn't make friends -he never made friends and the adults were very hard to empathasize with and he was turning sixteen soon and he had a dreamworld that he died to explore because this world was his reality. Everybody had fully scoped out personalities and emotions and were very much touchable, and best of all, in this world, Harry Potter was not "The Boy", "The Problem", "It," or "Freak,".

Just lonely.

On his birthday they used their slim budget to get him some fitting clothes and Harry reveled in his chance to shine without Dudley and studied and read, achieved and excelled to his heart's content even if the world's best education resources weren't exactly available. When he turned sixteen he looked around for a part time job and found one in a multiplex game shop run by the Devillins. It took a huge amount of charisma he had to pull from his back pocket but he was finally earning a small wage to buy his own way while he lived in the hostel.

Tingles still ran down his spine in the morning as he was allowed to sleep in, didn't have to make breakfast and had a world that could promise him some happiness as soon as he found it.

He didn't mind cleaning a Dungeon Dice Monsters arena, he even smiled while he did it, became legitimately friendly with customers and was a general crowd-pleaser.

So Duke Devilin decided to see what this boy was all about. Harry was met with a boy who stared back with his own green-stare that somehow looked different to his own at the same time, Harry was greeted with the sight of a mess of spiky black hair in a garish headband with rather sleazy gambling dice dangling from pierced ears.

"How come I haven't seen you around before now?" Duke asked curiously.

"I didn't live around here," shrugged Harry as he stacked up Dungeon Dice Monster bits and pieces.

"Where do you come from then?" he probed with a grin.

"E-England," stammered Harry suddenly, clamming up and not really wanting to answer more questions and quickly excused himself to the bathroom.

Duke frowned to himself as the employee left, there was something almost off about him that he could not quite place. Maybe it was the atmosphere that everything was touch-and-go around him, or maybe it was the past burn marks on his wrists from hot water or worse. Duke wasn't sure, all he knew was that Harry Potter needed careful watching over.

* * *

His endavours to recover the Egyptian God Cards had thus far proved unsuccessful for Marik Ishtar as had the manhunt for the man who brought them into modern dueling. The dark skinned teen sat perched on a wood-be throne, the richness of the purple gang-robe glistening as the gold chain across the hood of it dragged the weight of the hood over his eyes and shrouded his face in immense darkness.

The Millennium Rod had been acting oddly, it almost hurt to touch sometimes, and when he picked it up and began using it, it began to feel strange like the entire item wanted to talk to him and tell him something. Indeed all item bearers felt their items were being a bit off, but none had voices apart from the Millennium Necklace in the possession of Isis Ishtar that voiced it's concerns via visions.

A boy possessing "The Forbidden M" had entered Japan, and it was powerful enough to shake them to their very core.

Evil or no, item bearers on both sides felt haunted by the image of a lightning bolt, meanwhile the walking calamity that had caused a magical reaction of amazing gravity between ancient powerful items like a tornado meeting a volcano or unstoppable-force-meet-unmovable-object clash casually strolled out of a place called Kame Game Shop smiling from ear to ear as he carried his first duelling deck.

On his other arm, a fully functioning duel disk system.

* * *

Yugi Mutou for the life of him could not figure out why their Millennium Item was being so odd, the Pharaoh said it was something to do with a great power they were almost being warned of, and Yugi spent the entirety of the school day worrying about it.

Duke was rather absent minded for the day and his mind reeled back to the off-ness of Harry and wondered whether to bring it up and wondered why he didn't attend school like other kids.

He walked with his shoulders slumped and head hung low out of a habit and to be honest it got on the Duke's nerves a bit. For someone who -when listing his details for a job, had his sixteenth birthday today, he was still shy -almost sad.

Have you ever had your heart wrench so much you can barely breath when your with the person inducing it? It's like a dagger to the chest and blood running and drowning his windpipe. Harry was feeling that right then at that current second when he saw his own reflection and realized he missed his own birthday. He realized very suddenly that yes, he had no outside intruding pain like the Dursleys at the youth hostel was child's play, but he was cripplingly lonely.

The guilty turbaned spirit that watched the shadows felt himself almost gain something akin to more feeling for something outside of his duties as the weight of guilt hung on his shoulders.

Shadi knew the boy was not normal, and he could only regret that he did not know what to do about it, to set things right.

He didn't know, but he knew parenting often required a woman's touch and despite not really feeling the parental feeling and nothing much over simple guilt, he felt he had to do right by Harry Potter.

Shadi knew he did not know, but perhaps Isis would.

The ancient millennia's old wise spirit thus went in search of advice.


End file.
